Analysis of WEBSITE

At the beginning of the project, both ancillary tasks were discussed along side our main task before we began any work. We decided creating a poster and a website would be the most sensible out of the options, as between me and charlotte, collectively, these were the topics we had the most knowledge in.

We did some research into the software 'Dreamweaver' that is used to create websites from scratch and after spending 8 or so hours establishing how to use the programme, we came to a problem. After only being able to set up the basic lay out of how we wanted our web page to look, we looked at things practically and decided it would take too much time and resources to continuing using 'Dreamweaver' as we simply didn't have enough knowledge on how to use it, and we felt we wouldn't be able to make the best website of our ability with continuing with this programme.

We then researched into website creators that already exist online, as we have both used them before in the past and felt that we would be able to produce a good website to promote our newspaper.

We decided on using 'www.freewebs.com' as it offered the best lay out options and had a step by step on how to create a website. Because of how long we'd previously spent on the first website attempt, this was brilliant for us as it explained quickly and simply.

contents of website

Our website (as seen in the pictures below) contains: the title of our newspaper- 'Dunstable Times', five tabs labelled 'Home'-'Community'-'Events'-'Bedfordshire'-'lifestyle', and then continues to give a main headline and accompanying article.

We looked at other newspaper websites and decided on those headings for our pages because they were the most frequently used within the other websites, and also, the articles that we had already brainstormed to be included in the paper, fitted well into those headings.

At the beginning of the website creating process, we used paint to draw out a basic image of what we wanted the home page and page template of our site to look like.

This was drawn during a brainstorming session, which lead to the discussion of what elements we wanted to include in the layout. This included tabs for the different pages within the website. Tabs are a crucial component on a websites home page, as they are needed to navigate to and from the home page or back to the pages that were being looked at.

We wanted to incorporate a scrolling information bar at the top of the page just underneath the tabs, offering snippets of articles that are on offer through out the website to catch the readers attention, and entice them into looking through the website to find the sroty they saw scrolling across the page.

This is the Final design for the website, incorporating titles, headings, possible colour scheme.

We have compared this design fo a few other news websites, and felt it had all the necessay components for a good website layout.

Analysis of POSTER

In the beginning stages of creating a poster advertising the launch of our new news paper, we looked at a few examples on already existing posters, and brainstormed on the various elements we wanted to include within our own advertisment.
(example on right)



We Didnt feel that the poster (shown right) was suitable for the style of news paper we were trying to advertise, nor did it fit with our type clientele.





During the early stages of constructing our poster, both myself and charlotte agreed we didn't want an over-the-top bright colour scheme. Instead, we decided on mature pastel browns, greys, oranges and greens.




This was because we knew it would still make the poster stand out (with the text boxes being filled with a range of these colours), but qouldn't make it an 'eye sore'.



The information put into the advertisment we knew had to match the information and writing
style of what was put into our final newspaper. We made sure this happened by including snippets of articles already written, pin-pointing elements such as give away offers of which full detains are available in the newspaper, and that which ever of the group members wrote specific articles, then they would then write the snippet on the poster.




The pictures we used on the poster were all origional photography, and were chosen because they best described (as the visual aid) the feature they were paired with.



The pictures when paired with their relevant story are pretty self explanatory. The picture of the shop 'Peacocks' is advertising the shopping thats available in Dunstable, the Clock tower is one of Dunstables well knows features, so we felt only right using it as our main picture on the poster.



We feel the reader would have taken note to our advertisment over
others (with either different content, less written information, different/brighter colour schemes) because it's unusual. Posters are usually made with big bright bold lettering, lots of pictures, and not alot of text. So once the attention has been taken by the reader, there isnt really much to entice them in. We had incorporated an unusual colour scheme (Not bright, even neon colours) but interesting, attractive colours that would state 'i'm not the norm, find out what i have to say', which reflects on our type of newspaper. That we report storys of a great mixture, size, genere, which makes our newspaper one that would have a wide range of audience.





This is our final poster after several edits of wording, picture positioning, and over all appearance .

Friday 14th January

Uses and Gratifications approach

Charlotte -

In order to fully understand who and why people would read our newspaper, we did some research on the 'Uses and Gratifications' approach. We want our newspaper to reflect these issues and and enable us to satisfy peoples needs for knowledge by keeping them up to date with the news the minute it happens. We have done this by including the top stories from within the community, aswell as informing people about the latest events from within Dunstable. We want to appeal to our target audience and have a loyal fan base for those who will read our wide variety of topics and news.

People consume media texts for different reasons depending on the genre of text they are reading. Media texts satisfy a need for knowledge, and for those to comprehend what is going on in the world. Depending on what you want to know about e.g - consumption of current affairs would be in the form of newspapers, bulletins and documentaries. Others may be interested ain reading about celebrity scandals this being in the form of gossip magazines. The audience for this type of text is usually young teens to young adults (around 30 yrs) in order to keep up with their peers, knowing the latest gossip is a big social aspect as it is discussed on a regular basis. These are found in magazines such as 'heat' and 'OK!' to name a few. People have different preferences for information and even if it is false, people will believe it for the simple fact that it is printed. People judge and define themselves in relation to the celebrities they read about or the information they take in. Some readers are more active than others e.g - someone that has a monthly subscription is more active than someone who occasionally reads a newspaper. Reading texts about other people provides an escape from your own life along with the notions of relaxation and fantasy. On the other hand reading about current affairs and the world provides a sense of reality, depending on your preference and what interests you.

Analysis of NEWSPAPER

In order to attract the attention of our target audience we needed to have a story that would immediately gain their interest, so we had the title 'Boy, 17 stabbed over drug feud' in bold at the top of our newspaper. We put a paragraph of the story along with a photograph of Dunstable cemetary and continued the story on page 3 (which isn't on the inside leaf, but on the website) in order to make our viewers read on and thus reading the rest of our newspaper.


As this was the main focal point of our front page we put some mini stories at the bottom, for example a small story about a missing cat found in a bizarre place, a story on 'Who will be switching on this years christmas lights?', an article on the rapper Professor Green's upcoming performance at Dunstable's popular club Cookies and Cream. We also included a £2 coupon off fabric softner.

Pictures

We felt the images we included on the paper fitted well because they were all taken in Dunstable, and advertised the town well. We planned what pictures we wanted to take and that would go with the articles already chosen to portray Dunstable in a lively attractive manor. The picture taken of Cookies and Cream we felt was especially important as the night life in Dunstable hasn't been advertised particularly well in the past, and we wanted to capture the classy cocktail bar's image to promote in our new local paper.


Articles

The article that we wrote on the stabbing was put on the front page of our newspaper because during the construction of our project, a very similar attack happened in Dunstable and we thought it would be appropriate to include this story. When an incident of that nature occurs in a town, where the newspaper covers, in this case Dunstable, readers would want to know of anything this serious happening near them.

We included the article written about the missing cat because any stories written about animals, funny or tragic, attract the reader. The story is completly fictional, but created to gain the 'Awwr' factor.



Again, another fictional article we wrote for the newspaper was about
a robbery at a tesco express store. It isn't very often that you come
across stories of big supermarkets being broken into, so we decided it would catch the readers attention and be intrigued into what happened.




Adverts



To offer the reader a different range of adverts instead of the ones typically found in already existing local newspapers such as 'cash for gold' and 'car mechanics/garages'

Improvements

In terms of improvements, the second page needed some work as it did not resemble a conventional page of a newspaper. Although we had several advertisements aswell as a main story and smaller stories, the layout was wrong.


- Our Final inside leaf before changes - Our Final inside leaf

Monday 10th January

EVALUATION

Charlotte - For the first part of our planning we had to take into consideration what audience our newspaper was going to be aimed at. We had to decide whether to create a newspaper aimed at students or for the general community of Dunstable.

Newspaper for students:
Ages 13 - 19
Have education and latest events within Dunstable
Further research on the youths general interests and similar newspapers
Would feature images, and presented in a colourful and young way in order to attract attention

Newspaper for the general community:
The ages for this newspaper will be mixed and all general issues will be covered
Features things on local businesses within the community
Events and special offers
Latest stories and news from within the town covered
Research into similar community newspapers i.e The Dunstable Gazette
Presented in a professional manor yet still attracting a wide audience.

Target audience

We decided to do a community newspaper aimed at the general community of Dunstable. In order to appeal to this wide audience we need to carry out detailed research on similar local newspapers. A general community newspaper will keep the local people up to date on all aspects of Dunstable as well as bringing the community together.

At the beginning of our project myself and Holly constructed a short questionnaire in order to get an idea of what genre of newspaper is more popular, co inciding with the age, gender, along with questions on local and tabloid newspapers and the price that they thought would be appropriate to charge for a newspaper. The results helped us decide what type of newspaper to create that would appeal to our chosen target audience. Most of the people that answered our questionnaire were fellow peers that were interested equally in reading both tabloid and local newspapers, and enjoyed being kept up to date with the local town news.

We brainstormed several names for our newspaper, originally settling on 'Dunstable Today' however we discovered this name was already existing so changed it to 'Dunstable Times'. We also wanted to include a logo at the top of our newspaper so created our own unique one from scratch featuring the letters 'D' and 'T'.

Friday 17th December

Charlotte - Today is the last day before the end of term and we leave for the christmas holidays, so myself and Holly are tying up any loose ends for our newspaper and the ancillary tasks. We went into the town centre in order to take our photos for the newspaper and are going to crop them to size and upload them when we return in the new year. We had previously taken some photographs however some of them were too blurry and not up to standards so we decided to re take them. We have decided to do our evaluation on our blog in order to keep all the planning and research aswell as our up to date information on our project all together.